'Just go be Joe': Obama lets Biden loose on the campaign trail

Vice President Biden has been unleashed on the campaign trail, he said Tuesday night, telling a crowd at a Chicago fundraiser "we are going to win this race.”

Biden joins President Obama in the new phase of the 2012 reelection campaign, targeting Republicans in Congress while batting down unflattering reports from a new book.

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Addressing the 200 people gathered at the fundraiser, Biden appeared to be in his classic, convivial form, saying, "The president said, 'Look, Joe, just go be Joe.' So he let me loose."

The vice president paid a visit to the campaign's headquarters in downtown Chicago, where he said he "noticed four of my eight top people from my campaign are now in the headquarters, so I am all in."

In a clear rebuke of Ron Suskin's new book, which reportedly portrays a president indecisive during the early days of his administration amid the economic collapse, Biden said of Obama: "He stepped up. He didn’t hesitate.

“Folks, he literally saved this economy from falling off a cliff," Biden said.

The vice president also singled out National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas), whom Biden paraphrased as saying "why should we bail out Barack Obama?"

"His back is against the wall. All it can do is help him," Biden continued. "It’s a simple answer: America. America. Our economy.

"These guys are playing a different game than the president’s playing. And we are no longer playing.”